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Friday, August 7, 2009

I never had a cute notebook like this when I was in school! (This one even has an elastic band that wraps around to hold it closed.) Since I use notebooks every day, I was excited to see the new designs from Carolina Pad. I'm even more excited to be able to review them and give away a set to one of you.

I found out that Carolina Pad started designing fashionable school and office supplies in 2000 (long after I was out of school!):

In 2000, Carolina Pad helped transform the stationery industry. How? By introducing fashion school and office products! In the 1980s and 1990s, Carolina Pad, like many other paper product manufacturers, faced the twin challenges of declining profit margins and stiff competition from overseas. When Clay Presley joined the company as president in 2000, he quickly realized that business as usual was not an option. Carolina Pad needed to set a new course. So the company shifted its focus from manufacturing products to designing them. Carolina Pad was the first company to add fashion to school and office products. Clay, who bought majority interest in the company in 2003, also expanded operations internationally, opening offices in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

I had an opportunity, courtesy of Carolina Pad, to try several products. I'd like to tell you about my favorites.

This ring binder is in the Hot Chocolate collection, as is the spiral notebook I showed at the top of this post. It's not only cute, but seems durable. I open and close the rings fairly often; these seem strong and the two halves of the rings stay aligned.

My son picked up this book as soon as we opened the box. He likes the unique Sasquatch design.

The Ideal Book, in the Pattern Play collection, has 120 sheets of lined paper, separated into three sections with plastic tabbed dividers. My favorite features, though, are the durable plastic cover and pockets. One of the pockets (in the second photo above) closes like an envelope, so small items won't slide out.

Four of these tab dividers--from the Whimsical Flower collection--are patterned on one side (three with different-colored stripes, one with a coordinating pink floral design) and lined for note-taking on the reverse. The fifth divider is a double-sided pocket with a coordinating yellow floral print. These would jazz up any notebook, but of course they go especially well with the matching binder.

These Simply Chic file folders are so pretty! The outsides are black and white (four of each design shown), and the insides are polka-dotted. No boring manila folders here! The outside of each folder is coated for durability, too.

Finally, I haven't used this two-pocket folder yet, but I wanted to show it because it looks perfect for tweens and teens. It's from the brand-new Chit Chat collection.

I like these Carolina Pad products not only because they're attractive and fun to use, but because they seem like high-quality products that will last.

Buy it: Carolina Pad products are available at many retailers, or you can order from their Web store. Through August 22, use promotion code BTS2009 to receive a 15% discount on your total order. Orders of $30 or more (after discount) are eligible for free shipping, too.

Win it: Carolina Pad would like to give either the Kendall Kollection or the Sasquatch Collection to one lucky blog reader. This is what they look like:

This giveaway is closed. Congratulations to justicecw, who won the Carolina Pad Kendall Kollection!

Just leave me a comment to let me know Carolina Pad collection most appeals to you. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you. Limit 1 entry by this method. This must be done in order to qualify for extra entries.

Here's how you can earn additional entries (please leave one comment per entry):

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More details: Open to residents of USA, age 18 or older. Giveaway ends on 8/17/09 at noon (Eastern time). Winner will be chosen by the random number generator at Random.org. Winner will be contacted by email and must claim the prize within 72 hours, or another winner will be chosen. Void where prohibited.